When players play a game, they usually project themselves onto the protagonist, resonating with the characters or the situation.
The earlier scenes had already planted the hook, so of course players were looking forward to meeting Felutina again.
And when Stelle couldn’t find a single trace of Felutina either, disappointment was born.
“MiHoYo, where’s my Felutina?
She’s not on the space station at all — where is she?!”
Little Bluebird smacked her desk in frustration and shot a glance at the scrolling comments.
[Not a peep about her in the banner list either.
Is she just a satellite character?]
[That’s way too satellite even for a satellite]
[Listen up, everyone — walk the Trailblazer back to the room where you first met the Astral Express Crew.
There’s a memory bubble there that replays Felutina’s whole scene!]
[Holy crap, the intel checks out!]
[Still no follow-up story?]
[That’s probably all there is.
It was content they held back until launch day — the datamines didn’t even turn it up.
MiHoYo is way too good at hiding stuff!]
Yeah.
Way too good at hiding stuff.
Little Bluebird felt the injustice of it too.
A gorgeous girl only the protagonist could see — was she really just some character MiHoYo tossed into the plot on a whim?
Not a chance.
She swept the area one more time, confirmed there was nothing left to interact with, and turned back with a sigh of regret.
Her character took two steps back the way she’d come — then the Trailblazer stopped dead.
No matter how hard she mashed the keyboard, the girl wouldn’t budge an inch.
And then a voice rang out, familiar and sweet.
“Hey, over here.”
Arriving at the lowest point of the emotional dip is like finally cresting the top of a roller coaster: all that’s left is excitement, anticipation, and a sliver of fear.
Stelle turned around and saw the beautiful girl who shone like moonlight.
Three dialogue options popped up beside her —
[1.
Are you a ghost?]
[2.
Are you a hallucination?]
[3.
Turn and run.
Go find the Astral Express Crew to prove Felutina isn’t a hallucination]
Little Bluebird’s mouth twitched.
“Wow.
Peak NPC energy.”
She kept snarking as she pushed the scene forward — and discovered it was nowhere near as simple as she’d assumed.
The white-haired girl was mysterious, playful, sly and impish, unbelievably gentle toward the protagonist, and she showed off the power to close a wound with a flick of her fingers.
She appeared, warned the protagonist that “something big is coming,” handed the Trailblazer a so-called “cheat code,” and then vanished.
[Holy crap, that’s a cheat!]
[She got SO close, she said I was special, she called me Gray-baby!
I’m in her heart!
awsl!]
[A gorgeous girl only I can see…
okay it sounds a little delusional, but honestly?
It slaps]
[I am never washing my hand again…]
[Looks like a healer-type character?]
[The important part is the cheat code, right?
Just shout her name when you need her…
that is way too cool!]
“Right, and she made a point of saying ‘don’t misuse it.'”
Little Bluebird caught on fast.
She rubbed her smooth chin and analyzed it coolly, streamer-brain fully engaged.
“The reason she gave was a cutesy ‘it’d make me sad,’ sure — but link that with the earlier ‘I can’t stay too long’…
there’s more story here!”
Her IQ had just hit an all-time high!
[Damn, why didn’t you say so sooner]
[Tell us something we don’t already know, Birdie]
[New viewers might not know this: roasting Birdie is a sacred tradition in this channel.
Feel free to join us!]
“Stop inventing traditions that do not exist!”
Little Bluebird hollered.
The story rolled on.
Not long after Felutina disappeared, March 7th came rushing in and dragged Stelle off in the opposite direction at a dead run.
The floor was shaking underfoot.
Something was attacking the space station.
March 7th brought the Trailblazer to rendezvous with Dan Heng and Himeko, and the situation outside got spelled out: a Doomsday Beast, the Legion of Destruction’s anti-planet weapon.
And a character from the previous work, Welt Yang, was already on his way.
After a stretch of running the map and clearing mobs, the Astral Express Crew reached their destination — the platform.
Before they could finish preparing, a gale tore across the deck, and a purple-black, roughly dragon-shaped creature beat its wings past the edge of the platform.
“Get down here!”
March 7th drew her blue longbow with swagger, taunting the Doomsday Beast in the sky before anyone else could act.
“ROOOAR!”
With a furious bellow, the massive Doomsday Beast dove, hurtling straight at the group on the platform.
Here I fucking come!
…
The Doomsday Beast: an anti-planet weapon, forged from fragments of the Ancient Twilight Beast as its base, tempered with the grief of ten thousand corpses from the “Crucible of War” as its catalyst.
Sounds impressive, sure.
But this thing couldn’t even beat an Astral Express Crew that hadn’t unlocked its hidden power and didn’t have Uncle Welt in the party yet.
Felutina had already appeared behind the crew without a sound.
The Trailblazer, the only one who could see her, was too busy focusing on the fight to notice she was there at all.
Good.
Everything was going according to plan.
The corners of Felutina’s mouth curved up.
By her calculations, Stelle would most likely throw herself in front of March 7th right when the Doomsday Beast fired its final Destruction Death Ray.
And at that moment, whether or not Stelle called her name, she was making a dazzling entrance.
Felutina was in a quantum-state; the Doomsday Beast couldn’t touch her.
But from the camera’s point of view, it would absolutely look like she’d taken the hit for Stelle.
A gorgeous girl who shows up to save the day at the last second…
ah, beautiful, powerful, dependable.
Even if she were nothing but a satellite character, people would still be hyping her stats on credit.
People are complicated.
They have room for love and hate — and for math.
No matter how pretty she looked, if her damage was too low or her buffs too weak, she’d sit in the warehouse gathering dust.
And raw numbers alone, with a persona and story that didn’t line up, would get her spat on all the same.
So from beginning to end, Felutina had only ever made one choice — story, persona, and power.
All of it!
“March!”
While the girl was lost in thought, the crew’s battle had already reached its final beat.
March 7th, gasping for breath, was crouched on the ground, about to eat the Doomsday Beast’s Destruction Death Ray square in the chest.
At the critical moment, Stelle — the closest to her — stepped forward without a flicker of hesitation, spread her arms wide, and planted herself in front of March 7th.
This probably counted as an emergency, she figured.
Time to use the cheat code.
“Felutina!”
She shouted it without a moment’s doubt.
Almost the instant the sound left her lips.
The white-haired girl touched down on her toes, landing weightlessly in front of Stelle.
She tilted her head, looked at Stelle, and wore a brilliant smile.
“Honestly…”
Felutina blinked, her gaze sliding sideways for a fraction of a second — a quick flick toward March 7th, then just as quickly back.
“Nicely done.”
She turned around and faced the Destruction Death Ray head-on.
By rights, the Destruction Death Ray should never have moved this slowly.
But Felutina had played a new skill card.
— Close-Up!
Once you’re inside a Close-Up, even the most desperate situation stretches out like a film in slow motion, long enough to rattle off a whole speech.
Too much of it was bad, though — made you look like you were dragging your feet.
This much was just right.
Light swallowed everything.
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